Re: I-9 form employee gets married

I checked with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services on this issue. If an employee changes their name due to marriage, divorce, etc you are not required to change their I-9 form. If you choose to do so, this needs to be done in Section 3.

Re: I-9 form employee gets married

I checked with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services on this issue. If an employee changes their name due to marriage, divorce, etc you are not required to change their I-9 form. If you choose to do so, this needs to be done in Section 3.

Because you shouldn't be changing their name in your payroll system without seeing a social security card with the new name, you may as well get it all done at once. I would never permit I-9s to sit in the active file with the wrong name because of the problems that can create in the future. What the employer's handbook says is:

"Section 3, Updating and ReverificationEmployers must complete Section 3 when updating and/or reverifying Form I-9. Employers must reverify employment authorization of their employees on or before the work authorization expiration date recorded in Section 1 (if any). Employers CANNOT specify which document(s) they will accept from an employee.A. If an employee's name has changed at the time this form is being updated/reverified, complete Block A."

That leaves it open to when you choose to update/reverify. Given that you will see a document for payroll, you may as well use it for I-9 as well.

Re: I-9 form employee gets married

Re: I-9 form employee gets married

You DO NOT use Section 3 to update a name change. Section 3 is only used for reverifying employment eligibility or for rehired employees. Section 3 is never used for US citizens or permanent residents.

This booklet from USCIS explains it pretty well - http://www.uscis.gov/files/nativedocuments/E3eng.pdf - see the top of page 2

Re: I-9 form employee gets married

That differs from what I was told at an I-9 seminar led by a DOJ agent, before it became UCIS and I-9 became serious business for the fed, again. Because the form could only be changed by an act of Congress back then, there were all sorts of things one had to do to get around problems with the form (including things like the directions listing documents that were not permitted and not listing documents that were permitted as those changed over time). Do you have equivalent documentary authority as to how a name change should be handled on the I-9?

My personal experience is that it's a pain to have I-9s filed under former names of current employees. I would continue to verify the new name in Section 3 and write the name at the top of the form, put a stripe of highlighter across it, and file it in the correct file under the new name.

Re: I-9 form employee gets married

I disagree about using Section 3 for name changes. that is not the purpose of Section 3 and it should not be used for that. It is just as wrong as putting List A documents in the List C section.

I don't have a cite for how to handle a name change, because there is no actual method to do so on the I-9 form. USCIS has told me on several occasions (as did the DoL auditor out here who reviewed the I-9s) that there is not a place on the form for that. If someone changes their name it doesn't change their eligibility to work. And it doesn't change their identity - they're still the same person. All of them have told me to simply note the new name on the form and attach a note as to why a name change was noted on the form. Then file it under the new name. What I also do is slip into the binder in the place of the spot where the old form was a plain sheet of paper with the old name on it and a "see Jane Doe" on it - so if an auditor comes in and is looking at old information we can still find the correct I-9.